GRAVESHAM will have its first ever female Freemen of the Borough following a unanimous council vote.

Former councillors Patricia Oakshott and Jean Christie are to be admitted as Honorary Freemen of the Borough at the annual council meeting on May 14 after being nominated unopposed at a full council meeting on April 23.

Mrs Oakshott, who is in her 80s, is a former Conservative mayor of Gravesham who represented Higham ward.

Mrs Christie was a Labour councillor representing Northfleet whose husband Les Christie is standing for the party in Gravesham Rural ward in the Kent County Council elections on May 2.

The pair are only the fifth and sixth freemen of Gravesham since the council was formed in 1974.

They are preceeded by the borough’s first leader Ted Rouse; his deputy Frank Marven (who died last year); Conservative leader of the council from the 1980s Frank Gibson and prominent Labour figure Ernie Brook.

Istead Rise ward councillor and KCC candidate for Gravesham Rural Cllr Bryan Sweetland said: "It is nice to see some ladies who are being given the honour for the first time.

"Both of them have played a very distinguished and active role in public life in Gravesham and fully deserve the honour."

Freemen of the borough are awarded a medal of service, badges of office and a place on the freemen’s board.